Cloud Terminology 101: Six Terms You Should Understand About Cloud Computing

"No one understands the cloud! It's a mystery!"

Those words of anguish, from Jason Segel to his co-star Cameron Diaz in a new comedy, sum up the confusion that still surrounds cloud technology for most people. In this case, the pair discovers that their computer has uploaded undesirable personal data to a cloud-based file sharing service, making it visible to everyone they know. Can they get the offending content back, saving some shred of their dignity in the process?

While this is a fictional story wrapped around a comedic personal mishap, it identifies some key challenges we face with cloud computing today, from the lack of controls for safeguarding data to a general lack of knowledge in the general public.

For those of us in the business community who work with systems like Microsoft Dynamics, managing sensitive information such as customer data and payroll records requires understanding some of the common cloud terms and what they mean to an organization. And you'll need to be able to explain these terms to others who require at least a basic understanding of what the stakes are in a cloud-based business environment.

1) What is "The Cloud"?

"Cloud computing" has become a buzz word that is used interchangeably for various models of software and services that run somewhere other than your own property and infrastructure. Essentially, the cloud is the outsourced online infrastructure (i.e. servers and databases) for an application or multiple applications that can be accessed through the Internet.

Cloud computing resources are similar to a utility service, but the cloud can refer to multiple licensing models and service levels, and these are the details that ...